Paul McKercher

Paul McKercher is an Australian record producer, audio engineer, sound mixer and multi-instrumentalist. He has received five ARIA Artisan Awards and has produced over 50 albums. McKercher has worked with Australian artists Josh Pyke, Bertie Blackman, Papa vs Pretty, Sarah Blasko, You Am I, Pete Murray, Motor Ace and Eskimo Joe. An avowed analogue fan, he specialises in the use of tape, although he also uses digital technologies.

Paul McKercher
Origin	Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Genres	Pop, rock
Occupation(s)	Producer, engineer, teacher
Instrument(s)	Guitar, cello
Years active	1991–present
Website	paulmckercher.com

Biography

Paul McKercher worked at national youth radio station, Triple J, for three years. In 1991 he and fellow audio engineer John Jacobs created the "JJJ News Theme" as a mix of McKercher's guitar playing, a scratch of N.W.A.'s "Fuck tha Police" and the orchestral ABC News theme, "Majestic Fanfare", with the beat based on Prince's "Gett Off".^[1][2] McKercher followed with seven years at ABC radio.^[3] He has also worked as a free-lance record producer, engineer and mixer since 1992. For three weeks in 1993 McKercher recorded indie pop group Falling Joys' third studio album Aerial (August 1993).^[4][5] Using three different eight-track machines, at an isolated house in Kangaroo Valley, he captured the band live-in-the-studio.^[5]

In late 1997 Kercher was working at Woodstock Studios, Melbourne on pop rock band the Jaynes' extended play Dogbone (April 1998).^[6][7] He has written articles for Audio Technology Magazine.^[3] McKercher's techniques were discussed by Zolton Zavos in May 2000 in part one of "Making Tracks" in Tharunka on his work at Megaphon Studios, Petersham.^[8] Zavos acknowledged his "wonderful ear" when he worked as a producer, engineer and multi-instrumentalist.^[8]

In 2010 he addressed the Face the Music Conference.^[9] As from December 2016 he was a teacher at SAE Institute, Sydney delivering classes on "how to produce recordings" as well as continuing as a producer, engineer and mixer.^[10]

List of technical works

Year	Artist(s)	Work	Role(s)	Ref.
1991	Triple J	"JJJ News Theme" (with John Jacobs)	Mixer, guitar	[1][2]
1992	DAZYchains	Daze of Our Lives (EP)	Producer	[6]
	Glide	Shuffle Off to Buffalo (EP)	Producer	[6]
	The Apartments	Drift	Producer, engineer	[11]
1993	Clouds	Thunderhead	Producer, remastering	[6][11]
	Various artists	In Defence of Animals	Engineer	[11]
	Falling Joys	Aerial	Producer	[5]
1994	Various artists	Jabberjaw Compilation	Engineer	[11]
1995	The Apartments	A Life Full of Farewells	Producer, mixer	[6][11]
	The Cruel Sea	Three Legged Dog	Producer, engineer, backing vocals	[6][11]
	Tumbleweed	Galactaphonic	Producer, engineer	[6][11]
1996	Magic Dirt	Friends in Danger	Producer, engineer, mixer	[11]
	Hoodoo Gurus	In Blue Cave	Engineer	[11]
	Spiderbait	Ivy and the Big Apples	Producer	[6]
	You Am I	Hourly, Daily	Engineer, cello	[11]
	Tumbleweed	Return to Earth	Producer	[6]
1997	Pollyanna	Hello Halo	Producer, mixer	[11]
	Screamfeeder	Closing Alaska (EP)	Engineer	[11]
	Fini Scad	"Furious"	Producer	[12]
	Sidewinder	Tangerine	Producer	[13]
1998	The Cruel Sea	Over Easy	Producer	[6]
	The Jaynes	Dogbone (EP)	Producer	[6]
	Primary	Vicious Precious (EP)	Producer	[14]
	Hoodoo Gurus	Bite the Bullet	Engineer	[11]
	The Superjesus	Sumo	Engineer, mixer	[11]
	Cold Chisel	The Last Wave of Summer	Engineer	[11]
1999	Screamfeeder	Kitten Licks	Engineer	[11]
2000	Testeagles	Non Comprehendus	Producer	[15]
	Augie March	Sunset Studies	Producer, mixer, acoustic guitar	[6][11]
	Midnight Oil	The Real Thing	Engineer	[11]
2001	You Am I	Dress Me Slowly	Engineer	[11]
	Motor Ace	Five Star Laundry	Engineer, mixer	[11]
2002	Augie March	Strange Bird	Producer	[6]
	Monique Brumby	Signal Hill	Producer	[6]
	You Am I	Deliverance	Producer	[6]
	Knievel	The Name Rings a Bell That Drowns out Your Voice	Cello	[11]
	Speedstar	Bruises You Can Touch	Producer	[11]
2003	Motor Ace	Shoot This	Engineer, mixer	[11]
	Pete Murray	Feeler	Producer	[16]
	The Anyones[nb 1]	The Anyones	Engineer, mixer	[11]
2004	Eskimo Joe	A Song Is a City	Producer, engineer	[11]
	Butterfly 9	Butterfly 9	Mixer	[11]
	Hoodoo Gurus	Mach Schau	Engineer	[11]
	Little Birdy	BigBigLove	Producer, engineer, mixer	[18]
2005	Motor Ace	Animal	Engineer	[11]
	Jimmy Barnes	Double Happiness	Producer, engineer, mixer	[11]
	Daughterboy Jao	Simple Matters	Producer, engineer, mixer, effects, piano, Fender Rhodes	[11][19]
	Gear	The Gear (EP)	Producer, mixer	[11]
	Paul Greene	Reset	Producer, engineer	[20]
2006	Augie March	Moo, You Bloody Choir	Producer, engineer, mixer	[11]
	Sarah Blasko	What the Sea Wants, the Sea Will Have	Engineer	[11]
	The Cops	80 in the Shade	Producer	[21]
2007	Something for Kate	The Murmur Years	Engineer	[11]
2008	Josh Pyke	Chimney's Afire	Producer, engineer, mixer	[11]
	Melanie Horsnell	Complicated Sweetheart	Producer, mixer, guitar	[11]
	Kara Grainger	Grand and Green River	Producer, mixer	[11]
	Chasing Bailey	Long Story Short	Producer, mixer	[11]
2009	Jen Cloher & the Endless Sea	Hidden Hands	Producer	[22]
2011	Sierra Fin	Cautionary Tale of the Beautiful Blackout	Producer, engineer, mixer	[11]
	Papa vs Pretty	United in Isolation	Producer, engineer	[23]
	Bayonets for Legs	The Coloured Air (EP)	Mixer	[24]
2014	The Vines	Wicked Nature	Producer, mixer	[11]
	Augie March	Havens Dumb	Mixer	[25]
	Andy Bull	Sea of Approval	Engineer, mixer	[26]
2015	Art vs. Science	Off the Edge of the Earth and Into Forever, Forever	Engineer, mixer	[11]
	Sarah Belkner	Humans (EP)	Vocals producer	[27]
2017	The Go Set	One Fine Day	Engineer	[11]

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result	Ref.
1995	himself	Engineer of the Year	Won	[28][29]
		Producer of the Year	Nominated
1996	You Am I – Hourly, Daily	Engineer of the Year	Won	[30]
2001	Augie March – Sunset Studies	Engineer of the Year	Won	[31]
		Producer of the Year	Nominated
2003	Pete Murray – Feeler	Engineer of the Year	Nominated	[32][33]
		Producer of the Year	Nominated
2004	Eskimo Joe – A Song Is a City	Engineer of the Year	Won	[34]
	Producer of the Year	Won
	Pete Murray – "So Beautiful"	Producer of the Year	Nominated
2005	Little Birdy – BigBigLove	Engineer of the Year	Nominated	[35]
		Producer of the Year	Nominated
	Eskimo Joe – "Older Than You"	Engineer of the Year	Nominated
		Producer of the Year	Nominated
2006	Augie March – various tracks on Moo, You Bloody Choir	Engineer of the Year	Nominated	[36]
	Producer of the Year	Nominated
2007	Sarah Blasko – What the Sea Wants, the Sea Will Have	Engineer of the Year	Nominated	[37]
2014	Andy Bull – Sea of Approval	Engineer of the Year	Nominated	[38]
2022	Ball Park Music – Weirder & Weirder	Mix Engineer – Best Mixed Album	Nominated	[39]

Notes

1. For the US market The Anyones (and their 2003 self-titled album) were renamed as the Everyones due to a naming conflict with Los Angeles band Anyone.^[17] Consequently AllMusic has the release as The Everyones by the Everyones, in 2004.^[11]